Most of the current literature questioning the role and function of women is written by the young and for the young--the cry of outrage of young women with a new vision of the future. Almost none of it, however, addressed the problems of women in their middle years--those who suffer and struggle more quietly; those who married as a matter of course; whose inner world still reflects the values to which they were socialized, while the rapidly changing outer world is making new demands upon them. How are middle-aged women responding to the currents of change that are sweeping the nation? How are these changes affecting their lives? This research seeks to investigate the changing role definitions and expectations of women in their middle years (35-55). We will seek to discover how such women experience their changing roles within the family structure; what kinds of adaptations they make to these changes; what options they perceive as they begin to foresee a future without children; how they assess their own strengths and weaknesses--their ability to cope with the loss of familiar roles and to prepare for their emergent roles; what differences exist in both past and present experiences between women who choose to return to work or to school and those who do not; what costs and benefits does each choice exact; what qualities in the wife-husband relationship facilitate the successful passage through this period; and, finally, to compare high-school educated working-class women with college-educated middle-class women on all these issues, with a view to separating out the gender-related and class-related dimensions of women's experience. Using in-depth, focused interviews, we will interview 160 white women (35-55)--half working-class, half middle-class, each group roughly balanced between those who remain home-centered and those who do not. In addition to the data suggested by the above questions, we will collect a life history and the relevant socioeconomic and demographic data on each respondent.